Police: Man hid bags of drugs in his mouth

When Chicago police officers observed a car double-parked on the 1400 block of North Keeler Avenue in Humboldt Park Thursday, they decided to talk to the driver.

But the driver, Francisco Cruz, of Belmont Gardens, couldn't speak, the police report said. He mumbled something when officers asked for his drivers license, which he did not have, but they couldn't understand him. And when officers asked him if he had something in his mouth, his response was still too garbled to understand.

"Spit it out," officers said to Cruz, 41, according to the report, shining a flashlight into his mouth. Instead, he allegedly lunged at the officers, flailing his arms in an attempt to flee. Unable to escape, he pulled three plastic bags from his mouth and uttered his first words since the police arrived.

"Take this [bleep], bro, take this," he allegedly shouted at his companion in the passenger's seat of the car, before throwing to the ground three clear, bags filled with powder suspected to be about $30 worth of heroin.

Cruz was charged with two counts of resisting arrest, possession of a controlled substance, and aggravated battery to a police officer, who was taken to the hospital with minor injuries. Cruz appeared in the Cook County Criminal Courthouse Friday afternoon and was held on $40,000 bond.

Cruz is serving parole for residential burglaries, state prosecutors said.